Decatur was selected as a finalist in the Play Everywhere Challenge Tuesday. The challenge is a $1 million national competition hosted by KaBOOM! that awards "outside the-box-ideas to make play easy, available and fun for kids and families."
The City of Decatur submitted two applications to the contest. One was a plan for a "play space" under the mural at the MARTA bridge. The other was for a Pedal to School Bike Bus.
The projects were selected as finalists out of a pool of more than 1,000 applications nationwide.
“We’re thrilled at the possibility that Decatur’s kids could win this fantastic new opportunity to learn and develop from play,” Burnette said. “If we’re selected as a winner, we hope it will be just the beginning of a larger effort to make play a way of life for kids and families in our community and to have a way for more children to experience biking to school.”
Burnette said the idea for the "bike bus" was inspired by similar machines found in the Netherlands and France. She said idea is aimed toward children in Decatur who do not have bikes of their own.
"We have a lot of children who live in the Decatur housing authority," Burnette said. "A lot of them don't have bikes, so they can't bike to school. They are going to feel so special if we win this grant."
Burnette said that safety was a major consideration when the plan was developed.
"We are writing into the grant to get helmets and safety vests," Burnette said. "We have done bike safety training throughout the city throughout the years. We thought (the bike bus) would be a good incentive to get children to take bike safety training."
Winners for the competition will be selected in fall 2016.
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